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  - date: '2021-04-13'
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    speakers:
    - speaker_name: Gil Fronsdal
      speaker_url: https://www.audiodharma.org/speakers/1
    talk_start_time_seconds: 821
    title: 'Dharmette: Refuge (2 of 5) Refuge in Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha'
    url: https://www.audiodharma.org/talks/13314
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location_city: Redwood City, CA
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  title: Refuge (2 of 5) Refuge in Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha
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  uploader_str: Insight Meditation Center
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youtube_url: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLRakw83UIs
---

# Dharmette: Refuge (2 of 5) Refuge in Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha - [Gil Fronsdal](https://www.audiodharma.org/speakers/1)

*This is an AI-generated transcript from auto-generated subtitles for the video above. It likely contains inaccuracies, especially with speaker attribution if there are multiple speakers.*

## [Dharmette: Refuge (2 of 5) Refuge in Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha](https://www.audiodharma.org/talks/13314)

## Guided Meditation

So maybe we just sit quietly, for we have about ten minutes or so, and we'll just sit and meditate and then we'll continue as usual.

So then, as we come to the end of this sitting.

The idea of refuge is inseparable from[^1] the idea of saying yes to a way of being that's not caught in anxiety, or caught in distractions, or desires, or "what if," or "it should be different," or caught in aversion, or ill will, or disappointment, or discouragement. A way of being, a yes to a big yes, to a way of being. It is not taking us away from ourselves, but a yes to the possibility of being really here without agitation.

And the confidence in that makes a huge difference. An antidote to a kind of unconscious confidence in agitation, in all the different forms it takes. And that's a big yes that can allow us to give us room in the heart and the mind to have an unagitated attention, presence, connection with others. To have an unagitated space to look upon others without our agitation being contagious, without our ill will, hostility, frustration, disappointment, desires, and expectations unduly challenging others. Instead, we can be someone for whom it's comfortable to be around. We offer people a refuge, a safety, a peaceful and calm presence perhaps, or maybe just an attention, a focus of safety.

And may it be that through this meditation practice that we become a refuge for others. May it be that we are able to breathe and live and walk and speak in ways that promote the welfare and happiness of others. May all beings be happy. May all beings be safe. May all beings be peaceful. And may all beings everywhere be free.

## Technical Difficulties

So thank you for those of you who have persisted to keep coming back and coming back. It's very like meditation, we keep coming back and starting over. So we kept needing to refresh and refresh and come back. I believe the issue was either with our internet service provider or with the router to the service provider. We have two Wi-Fi systems here at IMC, and so I switched to the one that we usually don't use, that's kind of the backup, and the backup seems to be holding strong. What happened, I don't know, but I'm glad that it's working now.

## Taking Refuge

So continuing on this topic of refuge. The primary and most well-known aspect of refuge in Buddhism is the idea of going for refuge in the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha. The word for going, *gacchāmi*[^2] in Pali, literally means to walk. But "to go," I think, is just a perfectly good translation. However, I like "walking" because it implies that when we walk, we bring all of ourselves along. And so this idea of going for refuge is to bring all of ourselves into the refuge. It's something that's deeply personal and very individual, and involves a real commitment, a real dedication to step forward, step into something.

And so it is both something personal—the "I"—involving a certain intentionality, or commitment, or sense of purpose. Going. And then going to the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha.

## External and Internal Refuges

I think it's useful to consider that there are two versions of Buddha, Dharma, and the Sangha. There's the external ones and the internal ones. The external are what most people think about; it's the literal meaning of these words. And the internal has to do with how we find the reference point for those, or recognize these somehow in ourselves.

### The External Refuges

So the external Buddha is the historical Buddha. Probably one of the most important functions of the Buddha for practitioners is he's an exemplar. He's an example of what's possible: that it's possible to become free. It's possible to really shed thoroughly, completely, fully, all the different forces of agitation, of attachments, of fear, of hostility, and ill will that live within us. The Buddha represents that. He's an exemplar of that, and that's inspiring because unless we have exemplars of what this Dharma is about, then we have no proof it's possible.

I think of it a little bit like the 1950s, when the first person broke the four-minute mile running. It was said that it couldn't be done, it wasn't humanly possible to run a mile faster than four minutes. But once someone broke that barrier, that line, then many other people followed. Once the Buddha showed it was possible, attained what's possible, many people have followed his example and have attained the same degree of liberation as he has. To have him as an example, and be inspired by that, be guided by that, and have a sense, "Oh, it is possible." That doesn't involve blind faith or allegiance to the Buddha. The Buddha then becomes a mirror for ourselves to engage in the practice: "This is possible for me as well."

The external Dharma is his teachings, the truths, the practices, what flowed out of him as a way of pointing us to our own potential. And they're a remarkable set of teachings. There's a vast corpus of texts that claim to represent the records of his teachings. It's a fascinating body of texts. It's a little bit hard to get into, but it's so multi-dimensional and so rich in the kind of care in which it really addresses the issues of practice, philosophy, views, self, and all these things that we really want to shine a light on to really understand and find our own freedom. A lot of what he has to teach is meant to be practically applicable. In fact, in one place it says that when someone teaches the Dharma, it should be practical.

And then the Sangha is the community of witnesses. Those who have witnessed what he teaches, who've attained a similar form of liberation as the Buddha. To know that there are these people—the Buddha is not the only example, there's lots of examples down through time. And even in our time, there's many, many people who really tasted some of the fruit of what the Buddha was pointing to. They're there to guide us and support us, and to teach us in our own idiom, in our own cultural form, maybe adapting the teachings according to what's appropriate in different environments, different countries, and different cultures.

### The Internal Refuges

That's the external. The internal Buddha is when we see in ourselves the qualities of freedom, inner freedom, and the qualities of compassion, or care, or love that the Buddha had.

The internal Dharma is to recognize that some of the values and some of the practices that come out of that freedom, or that lead to that freedom, are also found in us. One of the primary characteristics of the Dharma is non-harming. To recognize in ourselves that there is a force, there is a reference point for really not wanting to harm any living being at all. A reference point of feeling a sense that where there's integrity, where there's wholeness, is not to lie, not to harm, and not to steal. Not because it's the ethical thing to do in the sense of abstract ethics or morality, but because something lives in us, feeling a sense of integrity. That's the Dharma that's living in us.

There's the Dharma that's internal of practicing, of saying yes, and bringing mindfulness, and showing up, and being settled, and keeping coming back to these qualities of practice that begin feeling like this is a valuable and important way of being. This is where home is. To not be here feels like a loss. It feels like a diminishment of my life to be caught in agitation. Caught in desires and expectations, and frustrations, and disappointments, and resentments, and envy, and jealousy, and acquisition—"Well, I wanted to acquire..." You can feel how we come out of harmony, or a little bit out of kilter, when we end up in these kinds of unnecessary and agitated states. To begin to really recognize these settled states, wholesome states, nourishing states, peaceful states within, is to recognize the Dharma.

And the inner Sangha is to recognize how we, in our personal way, live in relationship to other people. We live in relationship to others who—not necessarily are Buddhists, but certainly Buddhists are included—share some of these values, who resonate with us with those values, who guide us, or support us, or encourage us to live by these values, by this attention, this unagitated place of peace and wholeness that liberation, the Dharma, points to. We live in a relationship to others, and in that relationship, there are certain relational motivations and qualities that are part of this refuge and Sangha: generosity, friendliness, good will, compassion, honesty, that have to do with our relationship with each other. That's to take refuge in the inner Sangha.

Both external and inner Sangha are valuable, and some people orient to one more than the other at different times. But ultimately the idea is to have something within that we recognize: "Oh, that's what the Buddha is." Not that we have all the full qualities of a Buddha for sure, but some things—"Oh, this is what the Buddha was talking about. This is what the Dharma is. This is where the Sangha is found, or awakened, or connected to."

## An Inner Transformation

So we're talking about an inner transformation that happens in practice. At some point, as people practice, there's a recognition of a way of being that is valuable. A way of being that is more valuable than almost anything else, and for some people, they'd say it's the most important thing for them. Not, as I said yesterday, because other things that are important have become less important, but rather, the people in our lives, some of the purposes we have, how we live our lives—some things can remain just as important as they always have been. But maybe sometimes the Dharma, the practice, the refuges become the most important, because they're the very thing that feeds into a really beneficial way of relating to all the other things that are important as well. It's like the common denominator, or the source from which flows out a way of being that really brings benefit to what we love, and the people we love, and what's important for us.

So to take refuge in the Buddha, the Dharma, the Sangha, it's not a passive thing. It involves understanding, knowing something for oneself. As practice deepens, we learn to appreciate what we're getting to know. And then what we're knowing and recognizing, to let that live as a kind of big yes: "This is important. This is inspiring." It's an orientation. It's like, "This is the direction I want to go." It's an intentionality and orientation. The refuges are kind of a guide: "Oh yes, this is the way." And they're an inspiration. There's something that can be very heartfelt, and for some people it's quite emotional. There's a very deep emotional connection. So it's something intellectual, something intentional, and something emotional. It's very rich, this going for refuge.

Finally, I like to say that in some places in Buddhism, maybe some of our own Buddhist circles, what gets emphasized a lot is the goals of liberation, freedom, and awakening. And certainly that's important. But for many people, of comparable importance, of comparable magnitude of impact and transformation, and a real turning point in a life that's as valuable almost as liberation itself, is when there is really clearly a change inside that is represented by refuge. It's a big kind of yes: "This is what I'm dedicated to. This is important. This is where my faith is."

This refuge can be for some a very important turning decision, a turning point, that this is important. It's said that when that happens for people, it gives their life a sense of purpose, meaning. It gives a certain order or understanding for all of how we live our lives. And with that, it can give a lot of peace and reassurance that we've found a way to be in this difficult world.

So thank you all very much, and we'll continue on this topic tomorrow.

---
[^1]: Original transcript said 'incomparable to', corrected to 'inseparable from' based on context.
[^2]: **Gacchāmi:** A Pali word meaning "I go" or "I walk," derived from the verbal root _gam_ (to go).